My race recaps have a tendency to go long, but this one will be short.   I promise…

Race info at a glance:
Date:  Saturday, 11 Feb 2017
Distance:  50k+ (actual distance just over 32 miles)
Participants:  230 starters, 222 finishers
Course:  2 loops, alternating directions
Vert:  negligible for a trail ultra.  Not flat, but no extended climbs.
Terrain:  Estimate 70% single track, 30% fire road.
Weather:  Warm for Feb.  Perfect for running
Did I poo in the woods:  yes

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Almost exactly two months to the day after Hellgate, Holiday Lake was my kickstarter race of 2017.  The last two months have been relatively light on the miles, by design.  I’ve been running for fun….not really training.  There’d been no speed or hill work, and no structured  program.   Nutrition discipline has fallen off a bit too, also by design (gotta eat pizza every now and then, to remind yourself how good it is!).   This race would also serve as a diagnostic check-up – how would my legs and body feel, and what would I need to work on in the following few months.

Holiday Lake is the first and flattest race in  both the Beast series and Lynchburg Ultra series (two separate series, which overlap a few races).  It is essentially two loops around a large lake, each loop in opposite directions. So it’s kind of like an out and back.

A three hour drive from VB, we got an Airbnb place (a really cool Alpaca farm.  check it out at: https://www.facebook.com/BrightEyesAlpacas ) about 30 minutes from the start for Friday and Saturday night, and made a weekend out of it.  Allie and Finley came, and we were joined by Carter and his wife Susie.  Carter wasn’t racing, but after the pre-race briefing, he ran the course loop Friday night for a workout.  He also drove me to the start on Saturday morning and would crew me at the 16 mile turnaround.

We started at 0630 in the dark.   I’ll spare the reader graphic details, but I’ll just say that the first 8 miles were plagued with multiple pit stops in the woods.  The first one was right away, about half a mile in, and then a few miles later I was back in the woods for round two.  Frustrating – not only because it was uncomfortable to try to run through, but also because it cost me significant time and position.  The first stop put me way back in the pack in a tight single track section, and even as I somewhat aggressively passed folks to try to move back up (earning a fair share of snide comments), my next few miles were slow and herky-jerky.   All in all I spent about 5-6 minutes total squatting/grunting in the woods during those first 8 miles.
**Note:  The day prior as we drove up, I had feasted on an entire bag of Trader Joe’s dried figs.  I hadn’t intended to eat them all.   As Allie pleaded for me to stop, my hand kept reaching back into the bag until it was empty.  They tasted really good, but definitely took their revenge the next morning on the course.  This “phenomenon” had happened to me only once before, the morning after a Greek yogurt binge.  Dried figs have joined yogurt on the short-list of foods not to eat before a race. I will keep this list current and up to date, and keep you posted.

About eight miles into the race, the insides finally calmed down – still felt a little funky, but no more stops.  Because I’d fallen behind so far early, most of the first loop was spent moving back up the field.  I hit the turnaround aid station at mile 16 and was in-and-out at 2 hrs 12 minutes.  By this point I felt good and had settled into a spot in the field – I wasn’t passing but also not getting passed.  At about mile 20 the legs were feeling a little heavy, most noticeable fatigue/pain was in the hip flexors.   At mile 24, with 8 miles left, I got a pretty good second wind and picked up the pace.   Blew through the mile 28 aid station and ran hard the last four miles to try to catch anyone in front of me.  The low fuel light was on but I still had some fumes left in the tank to power these last few miles.  Since the turnaround I’d gained 2 spots, but had no idea what place I was in.  I passed the one-mile-left marker in the trail and saw a group of three off in the woods ahead of me.  This gave me the little jolt I needed to press the last mile hard, and I was able to pass 4 more people before the finish.   Felt good running down the paved road into the finish, and crossed the line at 4:18:10, for 14th place overall.

Honestly the legs felt pretty smoked once I walked out of the finish area, probably mostly attributed the push in those last few miles.  As I sat on the curb and took my shoes off, Allie brought me a beer-treat.  I’ve always said the best tasting beer in the world is the one you drink after a long run.
We hung out for a little over an hour and watched more people finish, then headed back to our Airbnb for a chill afternoon of crock-pot feasting, alpaca familiarization, and Bourne Identity.

Takeaways

The good:
– Pace: I negative split the course by about 5 minutes, which is good.  I was able to hold a pretty good pace on the return half, specifically miles 24-32.  I’m satisfied with my time on this day, only because I was out-of-cycle in my training, and I was hindered by the dried-fig effect.  But I know I can run 50k faster than 4:18.

– Weather:  Couldn’t have asked for better running weather.  Unseasonably warm for February, I went t-shirt and shorts throughout.  Cool enough that I didn’t sweat out too much water, but not cold enough to feel cold.

-Pickle juice:   In-race nutrition felt dialed.  Most notably pickle juice, which in addition to being delicious, also basically mainlines salt/electrolytes into your system.  Besides the juice, I only took in one gel during the race, and drank some half-strength tailwind on the second loop.  If you haven’t tried pickle juice late in a long run, I highly recommend it.

The bad:
– Pre-race figs:  Discussed above.  They’re delicious, but take my word and don’t do it if you have a race or long run within 24 hours. If you must, make sure you pack extra TP.

– Hip flexors / upper quads:  The limiting factor in my legs in this race was the hip flexors and/or upper quads.  Everything else felt fine:  knees, hamstrings, calves, and feet.   I’ll have to research the best exercises to strengthen hip flexors – but I think to start I’ll need to re-incorporate speed work and leg focused strength work into my regimen.  I haven’t done a speed workout probably since November, so it’s time to bring em back.   Also – even though the ups and downs in this race weren’t significant, they were enough to indicate that I need to get some vert back into my workouts.

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Next ultra is the Promise Land 50k+ on 29 April.  I’m going to train hard for this, and make it my A race for the spring.  Its 2 1/2 months away, so I’ll try to fit in some shorter races in between now and then.